Taste, Cider and red wine vinegar. There is more oaky malt here, but not much more. Some sherry. Faint cocoa finish, but the vinegar lingers.

It's pretty heavy, nice for a barleywine, but there is not enough carbonation for the sour ale it is. Alcohol is pretty well hidden. I struggled with this little bottle, but if you like and are ready for a sour, this might be nice.

Not undrinkabe, though nearly. More like something you could get from Russian River, like some sort of wild ale.

More User Reviews:

Awww shit. Bought this off the shelf here in Georgia on a whim & scanning the reviews, it sounds like this might be sour...well, nothing to do but hope. 11.4 oz. swing-top.

Cool bottle. I release the metal & it exhales before the rubber stopper is even cracked. Yikes. Heading to sink now. But no, not even a whimper of head. Looks like red wine vinegar; kinda smells like it too. No. Almost exactly like it.

Spike & Jerome's Cuvee Delirante should have been strangled in the cradle. Heavy sour tang, red vinegar up the nose, with a tiny wisp of rum & some kind of beer right at the end.

Brewers: if you're going to brew sour shit, put the word SOUR on the label somewhere; you're going to end up in hell for calling things like this a "barleywine". Dammit. This just pisses me off. Unfuckingdrinkable. It makes me sorry I just dropped money on another Terrapin beer, & I won't touch anything from these other characters.

Poured into a tulip glass a murky russett brown with no head to speak of at all,not the most glamerous pour by any means here.A mix of sour and dark fruits dipped in rum in the nose,a little underlying cake to it as well.In some ways its like an English barleywine with its deep dark frutiness and cakey notes,but the rye gives a lactic somewhat spicey finish that doesnt seem to match well with other elements of the beer.Not my cup of tea here but its not really bad,I just dont care for the finished product much.

From cellar, purchased in 2011.
L: Pours murky brown with little sign of effervescence and no head.
S: Dates, plum pudding, traces of port, a little winey, some earthiness, lemon, citrus and acid.
T: Prune, alcoholic, rum, lemony tartness, vanilla, faint caramel with a buttery aftertaste. Not much rum character and the oakiness is restrained. The tartness masks some of the effects of aging.
F: Fairly thick, flat, like a heavy wine.
O: An interesting beer, not to everyone’s taste, that comes across like a tart, flat English Old Ale laced with a shot of vinegar. As a flat sour, I like De Oude Cam better.

Brown with lots of red highlights, this beer is completely opaque as it's extremely thick and murky. The off-white head isn't much more than a short layer of bubbling that does achieve some spotting.
Wow. This beer is all about some acidity, funk and sourness. I guess it hits it's mark, as I imagine those are the three aspects the brewers had hoped to showcase. It practically makes the nostrils pucker (if they could), and the mouth absolutely does. There's lots of vinegar, some apple cider but more balsamic, against the backdrop of sweet ripened dark fruits. It's got some red wine character, tannins and a vinous quality, too. I didn't know it was barreled at first (not knowing what it was), but lots of wood comes out with vanilla. Also alonng for the ride are an earthy spice, raw lemon juice, horseblanket, and something like allspice, mostly on the tongue. It takes some time to reach through the complexities. There is a biting sting from the high acidity, and it seems to get a little too harsh. The alcohol is pretty well masked, though.
The acidic dryness hits the feel, of course, but it's very interesting for the palate to attempt to assimilate. It does bite, hard, but the dryness on the roof of the mouth and the sourness scraping the tongue are fun in their own way. Carbonation is on the lower end and crispness is soft but consistent.

This is a full flavored, complex barleywine. Each flavor appears as an individual at first. As the beer warms there is a little cohesion and balance that comes about. In the end, it's a nice barleywine, but I'm not sure it's one I would try again. It was definitely well worth trying once though.

Purchased this bottle for $9.99. Poured into a snifter. Very little carbonation with this beer. The aroma and taste is tart rum soaked cherries, plums, and raisins. The taste is extremely tart with some dark fruits and alcohol in the background.

A - Cloudy mahogany (brown, red, hint of purple), minimal head, but with some nice almond colored lacing. Appearance is thick, like a 1.020 FG or higher. It's definitely carbonated, but low for sure. The look is that if a fine barrel aged beer.

S- Vanilla (from the barrel or the rum, not sure) with caramel, definitely hints of rum and raisins. A fairly sweet smell.

T- raisins, dates, hints of prunes, red wine, oaky, slightly tart, and only the slightest bit of funk. Compared to your average English Barleywine his is funky, but I wouldn't call this a funky beer.

M - thick and chewy, it really rolls around and coats well. It's fairly tannic on the finish. I'd like to see this 5 years from now.

O- it's tasty and I'm glad to see Spike experimenting/learning about barrels and funk. It reminds me of something from Russian River, something from a red wine barrel, I just can't remember what. Anyway, it's tasty and I'd recommend trying it, but like I said, I'd like t see a bit more age on it.

Appearance - Murky brown pond water with no carbonation. A small collection of bubbles from a very vigorous pour, but that's most likely not being released from this beer... I don't know how this could look any less appetizing. 1.5 may be a generous rating.

Taste - This took a while to grow on me. I initially wanted to dump it. Acidic red wine, tannins, and oak really permeate every other flavor. But deep inside is a decent beer. The rum is lost in the taste, unfortunately. Light caramel and toffee persist. Some earthiness in the finish. Very interesting, but slightly difficult to drink.

Mouthfeel - Flat. Not an easy beer to drink. This will take me a long time. Not really thick, but acidic and a little bit astringent.

Overall - This is tough to review. Insanely complex and fascinating flavors, not all of which are easy to consume. The sourness adds and detracts at the same time. Reminds me a lot of Billy the Mountain, another beer that is incredible and difficult at the same time. Very BFM.

Big thanks goes out to my doppelganger for sharing this one while sitting by the pool in the recent 100+ °F weather! Served from bottle into a shaker. Poured a murky reddish brown with a minimal off-white head. Maintained nice lacing throughout the glass. The aroma was comprised of sweet malt, caramel, tart, tart cherries, fruit, wood, subtle vanilla, and alcohol. The flavor was of sweet malt, tart, tart cherries, fruit, wood, and alcohol. It had a medium feel on the palate with mild carbonation. Overall this was a pretty good brew. I was really taken back by the tartness going on here as I was not expecting it to be there at all. It did however blend in fairly well with the other aspects of the beer that were to be found here. One of my gripes is that the alcohol definitely made itself known early and didn't let you forget it was there after each sip. But the tartness did help to balance this out some however. Definitely worth trying if you get the chance and like a little well balanced tartness in your beer.